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354:4 -- Hunting Silverstar in Dwarvern Caverns
The party leaves Whitmouth in search of Lord Silverstar. Instead they find ex-slave dwarves and a dragon in the remains of the elven settlement. Bargaining with the dragon for a key, they open up a long-locked elven ruin. Inside are pale, enslaved dwarves and their elves. With the aid of the Ekek, the group finds and attacks the Elf commanding the mind-control magic, killing it. Unfortunately neither Lord Silverstar nor Urobi the slaver are found in the ruins, nor is Lord Silverstar's scent recent in the surrounding settlement. The dragon obtains the name of the dragon slayer and flies off. Notable Lore - There is a dwarven city of escaped or rebel slaves in the south. Adventurers wanting to visit it may visit 22,41 and make camp, and someone will guide them to the city. NOTE this is currently only "character knowledge" to the adventurers in this party & Ash-hammer. If your character hasn't been explicitly told, you won't have found out where it is because we're keeping it secret (21 June 2013). - Turian , the one who dwells beneath, is a dwarven god. Since the dwarven enslavement he has fallen out of popularity. He has the power to resurrect his followers multiple times. - An Ekek is a friendly, sentient, but private bird-man creature. - A sect (possibly widespread) of elves believe they are the master race and use mind-domination magic to enslave others. - Dwarves might live for 1000 years or so, Ekek's can live for longer. Notable Loot - Mind control collars, which were destroyed by Morrigan - A mysterious knife - A crown and a staff - A shiny pocketwatch - A very nice axe - ? Morrigan's Report We began looking for Lord Silverstar by talking to Ash-Hammer, who had information. Sitting on gold-coin stuffed “bean bags” in his house, he said Silverstar probably retreated either to the ruins of the elven settlement, or further back to some other ruins filled with “cerrrtain death” in the form of Lich Calwin. At the elves former house, now inhabited by minotaurs, we collected some clothes for scent work. I made sure the halfling bought his rations fairly this time. He is clearly unreliable, just like - well, anyway. We set out, but got lost four times and came home. Ash-hammer seemed embarrassed by this. We took a barge down the river the second time. Nils drowned his sorrows in dwarven ale. We found three dwarves living in the forest. Owl, who was missing his tongue, Thogli, and Ria, a priestess. They’d never heard of humans before. Ria explained that she was a cleric of Turian, the one who dwells beneath. His symbol is an upwards-pointing triangle with a shaded rectangle beneath. He granted her healing powers (which unfortunately our healing powers interfered with), and the ability to make her skin into stone and manipulate its shape into useful objects. Her magic also interacted unreliably with Sura’s. They told us about a dwarven city to the south, where escaped slaved had settled. They asked us for help killing a dragon - it had a key that unlocked ruins Silverstar was interested in. We went to bargain with it instead. It asked for the name of the dragon slayer. The naive but terribly handsome Gabriel said “Oh! Do you mean Zendri?” The ruins were full of magically, irretrievably enslaved dwarves, who we had to fight. I didn’t get to have Gabriel come to my rescue. We were also attacked by pale elves. Sura accidentally killed Owl with a fireball. This caused a lot of distress, but I was too busy to keep track. A bird-man with teeth and a beak appeared, called the Ekek. Apparently it locked the elves and dwarves in here about 3000 years ago, and had been on-and-off enslaved by the elves, who view themselves as the superior race. The Ekek took us to its secret hideout, where we rested. In darkness, by the underground lake, I felt close to Frya. I’ve stopped thinking of her as “my mother’s goddess”. I tried to clean myself up a bit to impress Gabriel. We burst in on ‘the Master’, an elf. She controlled Sura and Nils, but we defeated her and her minions anyway. Gabriel’s arm got broken and I ran over, accidentally knocking her hat off, revealing luxurious locks of golden hair. Turns out she is some rich nob’s daughter back in town. We declined Ekek’s offer to fix her arm. He said “You stupid. When something’s bad you have to pull it off.” I don’t think that was just his morbid sense of humor. Outside, Owl was resurrected by a strange monolith - apparently for the sixth time. Ria told us how to get to the dwarven city - approximately. We told Ash-hammer, but otherwise are keeping the location a secret to honor Ria’s trust. The Ekek didn’t quite understand embracing, but luckily I was wearing armor. He gave me a dagger. I’m glad he wont be enslaved by those elves again. Back in Whitmouth, Gabrielle was met by a grumpy butler. I had confusing feelings. The halfling nicked something shiny from the butler. I hope that doesn’t ruin my chances. Sura's Report Sura can be heard in the tavern telling Asha the tale of her adventure this past season. "Well, it all went horribly," she begins. We didn't even find Lord Silverfish, we almost died, I had my mind invaded, that flashy adventurer who joined us turned out to be a young noblewoman, and I accidentally killed a Dwarf." She pauses, and adds "don't tell Ash-hammer about that part, Asha. Anyway, Morrigan, Nils, Scratch, Gabriel—Gabrielle, I mean—and I set out for the ruins of the elven settlement because Ash-hammer told us we might find clues there. But all we found were a bunch of angry Dwarves who didn't know what humans are and were planning to kill the dragon which had made a nest in the settlement so that they could get a key to a buried Elven ruin. We offered to help by negotiating with it to get the key. Which we did, and all it asked in return was the name of… er, well, it gave us the key without us having to even promise to return it, and so we headed into this ridiculously ornate underground city. Of course, it wasn't abandoned, such is out luck. We were attacked by dozens of totally enslaved Dwarves—even our Dwarven companions agreed that the kindest thing to do was to kill them—and a bunch of dark elves. I was quite disoriented by the darkness and the sudden attack of the dark elves, not to mention an earlier attack on my mind itself, and I accidentally caught one of the Dwarves in a fireball. It was awful… but the other Dwarves resurrected him later, somehow, so I had the rare opportunity to apologise to the man I had killed… Well, after the fight, we encountered a very strange bird man creature which told us it was called the Ekek. It led us to the ruler of the city, an elf lady. The elves there seemed to think they were the rightful rulers of everyone and everything, and they've been using those poor Dwarves and slaves for thousands of years. It didn't take us long to destroy her. Although she briefly managed to gain control of my mind, I easily prevented her from making me do any damage to my friends and quickly shook off her influence. We brought back her head for Ash-hammer, since he wanted us to bring him something… I really don’t think that’s what he meant, but the others insisted. We also told him about the Dwarf city to the South and how to find it, but I think it would be best to keep that knowledge to ourselves, for now. You agree, yes? Asha? ASHA!” Asha wakes up with a start. “Er… yes, yes, of course,” he says. The conversation from that point quickly deteriorates into an argument, and anyone listening will hear nothing more of interest. Category:Actual Play Category:Lord Silverstar Category:Elves Category:Dwarves Category:Lich Category:Dragons